A cutting apparatus for cutting food objects

Abstract

A cutting apparatus for cutting a food object where inlet and outlet conveyors are arranged in an end-to-end arrangement. A moving mechanism is provided for adjusting the relative position between the ends of the inlet and outlet conveyors, a cutting device is provided having a cutting plane extending between the inlet and outlet conveyors, a detection mechanism is provided for detecting at least one characteristics related to the food object, and a control device is provided for controlling the moving mechanism and the cutting device. Controlling the moving mechanism includes utilizing the at least one detected characteristics in determining a target width of an opening between the ends of the inlet and outlet conveyors, and controlling the cutting device includes subsequently cutting the food object into smaller food pieces. The target width of the opening is selected such that it allows smaller food pieces to fall through the opening.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus for cutting a food object while the food object is conveyed from an inlet conveyor to an outlet conveyor, and to a method of performing the same.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]For the mechanical dividing of large pieces of meat into pieces, use is typically made of a so-called portion cutter. A portion cutter is a machine with a number of conveyor belts, a computer vision system, a knife and a control unit. Typically, there are two conveyor belts which are arranged end to end with a relatively small gap between them. The computer-controlled vision system can also be called a scanning system. The knife is typically of the “sword” type, i.e. a relatively long knife which is arranged at the side of the gap between the two conveyor belts. When a portion is to be cut from the piece of meat the meat is lying over the gap between the two conveyor belts, and the cut is carried out by the knife being rotated o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The objective of this invention is to create a cutting apparatus that can use less space and prevent small food pieces from sticking together after being cut.

Problems solved by technology

Another problem is that, although not shown in the example in FIG. 1, the smaller food pieces have a tendency of sticking together, in this case the end pieces may stick to the center piece meaning that such a clean separation of the end pieces and the center piece as shown here fails.

This obviously reduces the throughput of said processing step and requires an additional labor to manually remove the end piece from the center piece.

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